Donald Trump: The US Republican Party’s “Manchurian Candidate”?

Though he’s not as glamorous as either Frank Sinatra or Denzel Washington, is the media-glitzy American billionaire Donald Trump a true-blue “Manchurian Candidate”? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Political pundits in recent years had labeled former US President Ronald Reagan as a “closeted liberal” while President Barack Obama has been recently labeled as a “closeted Ronald Reagan like conservative”, the recent search for a GOP frontrunner for the 2016 US Presidential Elections had both political pundits and the general public alike wondering as of late whether media-glitzy billionaire Donald Trump could be a true-blue Manchurian Candidate”. But is there any proof that Trump could be one or is it just the “moneyed narcissism” talking? 

The term “Manchurian Candidate” stems from the 1959 novel by Richard Condon referring to a US presidential political candidate or person that has unknowingly been convinced to act toward some interest. At the prevailing political climate when the book was released, the global spread of communism was the perceived existential threat of the American way of life thus the first Manchurian Candidate movie released in 1962 starring Frank Sinatra revolved around the “Truman Doctrine”; While the 2004 remake that starred Denzel Washington revolved around the post 9/11 Islamist terror ("Dubya" Bush Doctrine?) as the existential threat to the American way of life. 

But based on what I’ve seen and heard so far in the CNN coverage on Donald Trump’s “plans” if elected as the president of the United States – Trump eerily reminds me of myself back when I was 11-years-old (back in 1983) if asked by news reporters on how to solve the threat posed by the then Soviet Union to the free world in which I would answer by “invoking Sly Stallone and Chuck Norris or even Snake Plissken to kick some ass and take down names”. Sadly, Donald Trump is much older than me.

When asked on how to solve the Islamic State / ISIS problem in a recent CNN interview, Donald Trump responded with bombing the Hell out of their crude oil revenue via round-the-clock airstrikes. Given the recent fiscal expenditures of the military adventurism of former US President George “Dubya” Bush on the search of nonexistent WMDs in Iraq, I’m beginning to wonder if Donald Trump even knows how much in US dollars worth of aviation-grade kerosene his private jet burns in an hour spent airborne. Is Donald Trump a “Manchurian Candidate”? More like an “immature candidate”.